Bromance: A Lothar x Khadgar Story
by Flagfish
Summary: Anduin Lothar/Khadgar. M/M romance and hurt/comfort, with intended explicit content to come; Khadgar and Lothar try uselessly to care for each other after an attack. Following Medivh's apparent demise, Aegwynn speaks to Khadgar in a vision where she advises him to search for clues at Karazhan; he and Lothar return to the tower, unaware that it's become cursed.
1. Chapter 1

" _Just lie still_."

Khadgar had Lothar on the library floor, stripped of his armor, hand pressed to his chest; some days following the events at Karazhan and Medivh's apparent demise, Aegwynn had spoken to Khadgar in a vision. She'd been just as exasperatingly vague as she'd been the time previous, but she'd made clear that he ought to investigate the dark tower; unbeknownst to him, Karazhan had been her home before it was passed to Medivh.

Unbeknownst to him also, she was Medivh's mother, and she'd work to bring him back— but all that was still to come.

With the orcish forces advancing gradually toward Redridge, the humans of Stormwind despaired, and Khadgar believed that within the tower there may lie arcane secrets to grant them advantage; that Karazhan now lay in a fallen state was obvious, but it wasn't yet evident that it had been _cursed_.

 _Something_ attacked him and Lothar while they searched through the library; there certainly _were_ secrets to be found, if there'd been any doubt.

"I don't need to be examined," Lothar rolled his eyes; "Look at you, you've got your whole—"

He reached to where Khadgar's robes were torn at the shoulder, and vague glitters of magic appeared to waft from his skin; "Never mind that," Khadgar said, he tried to move Lothar's hand away. "That's nothing, just residual—"

" _Nothing?_ Bookworm, you've got— _stuff_ — like— _in your shoulder_ —"

"Yes, I know, it's not got any actual core energies— and stop calling me that— _and just lie back down, I can't work like this_ —"

For several moments, Lothar genuinely tried to lie still, but the longer he tried, the stupider he felt; "All right," he said finally, "enough— I've had far worse, I don't need to be babied— _Ow, Light's sake, what the hell!_ "

"I _told_ you to lie _still!_ "

"So you can what? Attack me with your spells?!"

Khadgar sighed; "It wouldn't have _hurt_ if you hadn't _moved!_ "

Now Lothar appeared to fight visibly for composure while he lay on the rug, hands going in fists with annoyance; his lips pursed with the pain of the spell, while above him Khadgar continued to do whatever it was he was doing. He turned to him with any remaining smart words he still had prepared when he saw, to his own vast astonishment, a dark shadow being slowly drawn from his chest.

Khdgar's eyes were wide with the power of it even as he performed the cast, _which was hardly reassuring where his competence as a sorcerer was concerned_ ; "What?" Lothar asked, "what the hell is that?"

" _Lie still_..."

" _Yeah, easy coming from you, you've not got—_ "

Khadgar had hardly finished drawing the dark figure out when it expanded to about twice its size and burst through the room; it burrowed into the floor with a great burst of energy, and not without grazing the both of them first.

There followed a chorus of expletives on both their parts, and then accusations on part of Lothar about _what Khadgar had done_ , and defensive remarks from Khadgar, and finally a great deal of arguing as to _what that thing was_ ; all the while, they both still were reeling from the lesions they'd suffered while it escaped, and despite themselves they had to sit down.

"This place isn't safe," Khadgar said while still clutching his arm; at that, Lothar glanced at him incredulously.

" _No kidding_ ," he huffed; " _do you even know what you're doing with your spells?_ "

"Do I even _— yes! Yes, I know what I'm doing!_ "

After several moments, he quietly added, "I think."

"If I'd had my armor on, that thing wouldn't have grazed me like this—"

"Yeah, well— _if you'd had your armor on, there'd be no way I'd be able to pull the dark energies out_."

"And now they're running amok all over this tower— _wherever they are_ —"

"Oh, know what— _fine_. I'm sorry I didn't leave them inside you— _what are you doing_ —"

Now Lothar was peeling back the torn flanks of Khadgar's sleeve; " _Light_ ," he murmured, and his face contorted with so much concern that Khadgar became worried. "What?" he asked, "What are you making that face for?"

He tried from the angle he was sat to inspect his own shoulder better, and now saw that the residual energies from before had gone darker, that they seemed to have seeped deeper in; also, the flesh on his upper arm appeared like it was somewhere between a sunburn and a scar.

"That's it," Lothar said; "take this off— it's like you've been burned—"

"Hey— _what are you— I told you, I'm fine_ —"

By then, Lothar had got the top part of Khadgar's robes off and was examining his arm with what looked like skilled proficiency; "We need water," he said, "and golden sansam—"

"Why? What are you gonna do?"

"I've seen this sort of burn before at battle— let's go see where he keeps his herbs—"

"Oh yeah, great idea, Anduin— _let's go looking through this entire building for where he might or might not keep some golden sansam_."

"Have you got any better ideas?"

Several moments passed before Khadgar resigned and agreed to follow Lothar to the stairs.

 _(On to Chapter 2)_

XXX

A/N: I would love to RP these two if anyone is interested! (There are actually a lot of m/m pairs I'd love to RP in Warcraft lore); it's completely cool by me if you're new to Warcraft or to RPing, or if you don't know that much lore— I just like writing with someone else who's passionate about the same stuff. If you think you might want to give it a go, please send me a message =)


	2. Chapter 2

" _I swear, if you sheep me one more time_ —"

"Sorry! I said I was sorry— it was an impulse reaction—"

" _You turn people into sheep on impulse?!_ "

" _That really hurt, okay!_ "

Maybe they'd taken too long to begin, but finding Medivh's herbs hadn't been easy; now Khadgar felt utterly daft while he waited for Lothar to treat him. He'd been certain he was _fine_ until the lesion on his shoulder had started to hurt worse than before.

Lothar had tried the balm on himself first, he'd got his shirt off and dipped a washcloth in water, and Khadgar watched him wince while it moved over his skin; he could see now the size of the impact, but also that it was far from his first time, _Lothar had scars all over._ Some of them appeared like they must have been very painful once; the water streamed down his chest in glittering rivulets, low sounds of liquid echoed quietly through the room.

 _And the way he cringed after applying the ointment didn't bode well for Khadgar_.

"Now you," he said spontaneously, _far too soon_ ; at that, Khadgar stiffened, he stared back in mute horror.

"Ah—" he muttered; "Go on," Lothar said, he turned toward a cabinet, where earlier they'd found Medivh had kept towels and cloths. "Get your robes off."

" _Already?_ " Khadgar sputtered; "Yes, already," came the reply. "Don't be stupid about this."

" _Right, of course not._ "

It was embarrassing, having to take off his robes after he'd got a look of Lothar's impressive physique; Khadgar had nothing on that, he was all skin and bones, and pasty from the time he'd spent indoors studying.

He tried to act like he was _cool as a cucumber_ , but his own anxiety betrayed him, and he'd somehow managed to get out of his clothes in the most awkward conceivable way; _he even dropped like three mana gems on the floor in the process, one Darkmoon token, and half a conjured roll that had long since gone stale_.

 _He didn't even remember having all that stuff_.

The worst part perhaps was that he totally never did things like this— he never left stuff in his pockets before taking off his clothes, _but he was stupidly nervous_ , Light only knew why; as for Lothar, he might have taken the opportunity to make fun of him, and Khadgar completely expected him to— but, for some reason, he said nothing to that effect. He merely busied himself getting a new towel damp and then soaked in the preparation of golden sansam; he seemed impatient and annoyed.

 _Maybe it still hurt_ , Khadgar thought; maybe that was why there was little of his usual cheeky ridicule.

After he'd collected the stuff that had fallen on the floor, Khadgar readied himself for the inevitable, and he must have appeared utterly petrified— because Lothar paused partway to where he was going to clean his lesion, and instead regarded him strangely. "Light almighty," he said; "you'd think you didn't have me under you just a half hour ago, doing _hell knows what_ with your spells."

" _That was different_ ," Khadgar stammered; the words came very fast, and he squirmed backward away from the cloth like it would be the death of him.

"Unbelievable," Lothar let a dry laugh; "You pulled some kind of shadow... thing... out of me without so much as batting an eye, and now you're _this bloody frightened_ of a little ointment?"

" _Yes. No._ I mean— _no, of course not!_ "

He tried to sit up straighter, and willed himself to just _calm the fuck down_ — but for some reason, he was _totally freaking out_ despite that.

And it wasn't because of the salve, either— _okay, maybe the salve had a little to do with it_ — but beyond that, Lothar's scrutiny had got him shy while he was vulnerable and disrobed. From this close up, Khadgar could see not only how perfectly sculpted he was, but also how he seemed to wear his scars like trophies of battle, _it was terribly humbling_.

Khadgar had a scar on his lower back, from a time his chair broke spontaneously while he sat at his desk reading.

 _It was possibly the most embarrassing sort of scar someone could have._

At the moment, he wished he hadn't thought of that; he tried to think of other things, anything to make him relax, and he hadn't realized he was nervously shaking one leg.

"Could you stop that?" Lothar asked.

"Stop what?"

"You're making the chair squeak."

"I'm what?"

Lothar's hand came down hard on Khadgar's knee; " _Stop shaking_ ," he said.

"Oh," Khadgar replied stupidly; "right, sorry. _What are you doing_ —"

That was the first time he'd cast polymorph; apparently, Lothar had had enough of his squirming, and had finally pressed the cloth directly to his lesion. It hadn't even hurt yet at first, it was just the abrupt move— and Khadgar hadn't actually _meant_ to cast polymorph, _he'd intended to blink in order to get away_.

But, somehow, even the most basic spells had escaped him, and instead he'd cast the first thing that came to mind; he stared in bewilderment after the fact while the full meaning of what he'd done slowly registered, _as well as how pissed off Lothar would certainly be_.

"Ah," he murmured; " _sorry_ — _sorry_ —"

Needless to say, on being changed back Lothar wasn't amused.

He snatched the washcloth and rapidly thwacked it across Khadgar's head; "Idiot," he muttered, " _What the hell was that?!_ "

Khadgar could feel his ears burn. " _I never do that_ ," he stammered; " _I don't know—_ "

"You don't _know?_ You just—" Lothar waved one hand sarcastically; " _—you just cast things at random?_ "

" _No!_ No, it's not like that, _I'm not usually like this_."

"Wanna bet?"

"I mean with magic— I don't usually, like— I don't randomly— _let's just get this over with_ —"

By the time Lothar had actually started to treat him, Khadgar had managed to polymorph him twice more; the third time was because by then the medication began to take effect, and it had stung exactly as much as he'd expected.

After that, Lothar got both Khadgar's wrists in one hand and proceeded to point with the other; "I'm done trying to help you," he said. " _Do it yourself_."

He tossed the washcloth in his direction and then got to work putting things away, but he could see out the corner of his eye how reluctant Khadgar was to try treating himself; there he was, delicately dabbing at his skin with the wrong side of the cloth, which hadn't been properly sterilized and might make things worse.

Lothar sighed after some seconds of watching this; he took the washcloth without a word and went on to dip it in more of the ointment, and then turned his gaze to Khadgar; his irritation was unmistakable. " _You sheep me one more time_ ," he said, " _and I'll take a proper swing at you._ Understood?"

His eyes appeared almost predatory; Khadgar stared back with visible trepidation, _he had no idea why he'd polymorphed him before_.

" _Understood_ ," he replied softly.

 _(On to Chapter 3)  
_

 _A/N: I was so tempted to have some apexis crystals fall out of Khadgar's pocket too, but that wouldn't make sense for that point in the lore XD_

XXX

I would love to RP these two if anyone is interested! (There are actually a lot of m/m pairs I'd love to RP in Warcraft lore); it's completely cool by me if you're new to Warcraft or to RPing, or if you don't know that much lore— I just like writing with someone else who's passionate about the same stuff. If you think you might want to give it a go, please send me a message =)


	3. Chapter 3

That night, lying to sleep had felt strange to Lothar, as despite all that happened the tower's familiarity continued to envelop him; he'd had countless memories there with Llane and Medivh. They had spent the night together plenty in boyhood, before Medivh's powers had manifested, and if he closed his eyes now he still could imagine them lain beside him, _each hoping to stay awake the longest so as to play pranks on the others_.

But Karazhan had changed without doubt; its unearthly atmosphere was practically tangible, everything appeared uncanny and inverted, but still intimately knowing— like _home_. In the dimly-lit guest room, he could make out the outline of the furniture, light and shadow dancing to the flicker of candle flames, the scent of fabric and incense, and spines of countless tomes.

There also was Khadgar's sleeping form, for some moments Lothar was taken by an old paternal impulse; it came to him now and again, unexpectedly, many months after Callan had passed.

 _Funny how harmless Khadgar appeared while he slept_ , like he hadn't polymorphed him multiple times before, or hadn't used powerful magic to draw a shadowy figure out from inside him; he was boyish and awkward, sprawled on his back with one wiry leg sticking out, and the sheets wrapped partway around it.

After the ordeal with the ointment they'd had a tiring evening searching through books, but hadn't found anything worthwhile in terms of what Khadgar had said of his _vision_ ; Lothar might have dismissed it as nonsense if at that moment Khadgar hadn't sounded so _similar_ to the way Medivh had been.

 _Sometimes, he found himself still aching at the memory of his son and his friends_.

" _Idiot_ ," he mouthed; he sat slowly in bed and reached for where the blankets were twisted around Khadgadr's foot. In the dim light it was a little hard to see, he carefully lifted his ankle and began to disentangle the sheets, and wondered how he had managed to get them like that.

 _And he had_ — he had a freaking book still tucked under one arm, and a magnifying glass that had fallen out; " _Seriously...?_ " Lothar murmured, he reached delicately for the items, and struggled to loosen them from within his hold. He turned the book to the page Khadgar had open, then got it on its side as to read a few lines; however, he soon was reminded of his own poor understanding of the arcane, and moved to place it on the dresser when his attention was drawn to Khadgar's dressings.

They seemed somewhat frayed at the front, Lothar put down the book and made to peel the sheets back as to examine him more closely; " _I'll bet you picked at them_ ," he whispered, he could see the tender erythema just beneath the bandage. _He remembered a time when Medivh had been injured like this_...

Some minutes later, Khadgar arose to find Lothar carefully running a soaked towel over his chest; at first, he pretended to still be asleep, somewhere between cognizance and stupor, and tried to piece together what was going on— _he wasn't really used to being cared for this way_. It felt nice, the warm liquid, Lothar's large hands, the slight pressure he used despite his immeasurable strength; _what was he doing?_ It occurred to Khadgar that if he'd let on he was awake, Lothar might stop.

Soon enough, it occurred to him also that he must be cleaning his lesion, which meant that he likely intended to apply more of the salve as well; his eyes went gradually open, and in the dim light he regarded Lothar's expression, how serenely composed he appeared, like his thoughts lingered distantly elsewhere.

The dark bundles of his hair swayed slightly while he worked, Khadgar could make out the fluid motion of muscles and bones beneath his skin, the flames of the candles reflected in his eyes; no words were exchanged between them when first Lothar met his gaze, there came only the low sound of water and rustle of fabric, and the nearly inaudible expiration of breath.

Khadgar watched his hands while he wrung out the cloth, and thought of how they appeared when he gripped his sword, when he led his troops to battle; _that he'd be capable of such profound gentleness_ —

He was taken a bit by surprise when Lothar's voice came; it issued sleepy and soft, with unspoken undertones of compassion.

"You even _think_ about sheeping me," he said, "and—"

" _And I'm dead_ ," Khadgar said quietly; " _I know._ "

Words were almost too much for so tranquil a moment.

Lothar continued some time longer before he spoke again; "I'm gonna do the salve now," he warned, and Khadgar tried his best to act _cool_. "Yeah," he said, "okay—" And, to Lothar, the trepidation in his voice was so plainly obvious he let a small chuckle.

"You went up against the orcs," he reminded him; "you went up against fel magic, how can _this_ get you frightened—"

"I'm not _frightened_ ," Khadgar huffed; "it's just—" his gaze followed the motion of Lothar's hand while he started to unroll a new towel for the ointment, and then he gave a sharp inhale on seeing him approach. In the dim candlelight, the delicate outline of his ribs came visible on inspiration, his eyes flicked to Lothar's fingers, then back to his face; "— _it's just a little sensitive_ ," he murmured.

" _A little sensitive_ ," Lothar's laugh came cheeky and low; " _You were completely freaking out_."

"I won't this time," Khadgar said; he nodded and indicated the bowl with the ointment. "Just be really gentle, and go slowly."

At that, Lothar raised one eyebrow; he held up the towel and asked, "When have I ever _not been gentle_?"

Whatever sarcastic remark Khadgar had prepared died on his lips when he saw him approach, his gaze lingered on Lothar's hand and he quietly mumbled, _Cool as a cucumber, I'm totally cool_...

But Lothar really was gentle this time; he kept his eyes on Khadgar's face for a reaction, and warned him before he got the cloth on. "I'm doing it now," he said, and Khadgar nodded, he stiffened at the touch but became aware it really _wasn't_ just because of how it burned; _there was something about it he couldn't quite place_ , which was both embarrassing and very intriguing, and which had his pulse quicken despite him.

His breath hitched when gradually the pain became more profound, _he'd forgotten the salve took time to work through_ ; he'd really intended to stay cool without making a scene, and for a short while he thought he could do it— but soon he propped himself by the elbows and gave a strained laugh.

" _Okay_ ," he said, " _now it really hurts_."

Lothar met his eyes like he was trying to see how he was faring; he asked, "Think you could hold it for just a bit longer?"

Khadgar exhaled; " _I'll try_ —"

Lothar kept his gaze on him, and silently counted under his breath; when he thought it had been long enough he finally withdrew, and advised him to wait for some moments as the sensation would take time to diminish.

" _Praise the Light_ ," Khadgar said; he tossed himself back on the sheets with one arm on his eyes, and even chuckled when Lothar asked _if he was sure he wasn't going to suddenly spell him_.

"Yeah," Khadgar laughed; "pretty sure."

He watched from under his forearm as Lothar started to gather the towels, and while at first his lesion had his full attention, when the pain subsided he became aware that _here Lothar had cared for him_ , without being prompted and of his own accord; it was only after the fact that he noticed the book he'd been reading was neatly placed at the bedside table, with the magnifying glass on top.

 _Personally, Khadgar had usually left books in a pile on the floor, or anywhere on his bed if he'd fallen asleep_.

 _To be continued..._

XXX

I would love to RP these two if anyone is interested! (There are actually a lot of m/m pairs I'd love to RP in Warcraft lore); it's completely cool by me if you're new to Warcraft or to RPing, or if you don't know that much lore— I just like writing with someone else who's passionate about the same stuff. If you think you might want to give it a go, please send me a message =)


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